hey allim scottish and although here in bonnie old scotland we speak english, it is a very different english than that used in england or america.for instance the way we 'say' yes is 'I' (pronounced eye)'no' is 'naw''what' is 'wit'etc,etc,for someone learning to speak english this would be very confusing for them, i was wondering if it was the same over in some parts of japan:@:DB):p:o:(:|;):);):|:(:o:pB):D:@

if they use slang ?? They might have some slang but it would be like canada or america because we say lol instead of haha some times.. or brb, g2g, stuff like that so japan may have slang like that but they use it in every part of japan because its the same country..

One of my friends is from southern kyuushuu. When she studied abroad in America, her roommate was from aomori ken. They had such a hard time understanding each other's japanese that they always spoke to each other in english, because it was easier.

I don't think thats true because i have over 100 Japanese friends and some live in osaka and none of them said its any different from any other place and when i ask them how to say stuff in Japanese they say the exact same thing as other friends who live in tokyo and other places

Last edited by kanadajin on Thu 06.30.2005 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Official Japanese is taught in school, but it's not what is used in daily life. Everyone can speak Official Japanese, but depending on how far removed your area's dialect is from the Official Language, you may find it very hard to speak "correctly." Words are words. Mouse is mouse is mouse is mouse. Slang is completely different.

Ask someone from the southern United States to say Dog. Doesn't sound at all like a northerner's pronunciates. Try to get a southerner to talk without saying y'all once, and you'll see what it's like for Japanese people and their dialects.

I'd say there is. Also, there is a change between generations. My greatgrandmother... IS SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND. Infact, when I wrote her in Japanese, I got back... a mess of old japanese that is not used anymore. I think also, it is somewhat hard for the younger generation to communicate with the older? atleast, that is my problem.

That's true what you're saying about the language changing between generations. Just yesterday, when I was buying my new green goddess dictionary, I happened upon some of its translators web sites while trying to get the best price. Anyway, two of them commented separately on the fact that they had to delete entries from the previous edition because the words are no longer used -- and last edition is only 29 years ago! Literally, in the amount of time I've been alive, entire words have become extinct! The kind of thing that really makes you think -- or maybe just bang your head into a wall

They all mean exactly the same thing, but the words and the intonation are very different. Tokyo and Osaka dialects are heavily covered in the media, and so everyone here has gotten very used to them. Other dialects, on the other hand, such as Nagasaki, Okinawa, Aomori, etc, are not as well know, and even Japanese people often have difficulty understanding people from these more "far flung" parts of Japan.

Keep in mind that the further into the countryside you get, the stronger the dialect gets. I'd guess that the majority of your friends come from the city, kanadajin, which would explain why their Japanese is more "standardized."

There always seem to be people eager to learn osaka-ben. My girlfriend is from Osaka, and one of my Sensei's father's spoke Osaka-ben, so she knows some of it. With their help, I'm learning it. Maybe if people are interested, I will post an article when I get a little better?